75 years ago, construction of the Pentagon began, a symbol of the U.S. military

Washington - The Pentagon, in mathematics a pentagon, has been the name of the building that houses the United States Department of Defense for decades, and in a broader sense, the term is also perceived as the entire defense sector and a symbol of the American military. The cornerstone of the building was laid 75 years ago, on September 11, 1941. It was completed in January 1943. The generously designed building was named after its shape.

This allegedly largest administrative building in the world, located in Arlington city adjacent to Washington, was designed by architect George Bergstrom. The Pentagon has seven floors (five of which are above ground) and consists of five concentric pentagons. One side of the largest of them measures over 200 meters. Each side of the five pentagons is connected on each floor by three hallways, which together are nearly 30 kilometers long. The building has over 116,000 square meters of area and accommodates approximately 26,000 employees. In the center is a courtyard with an area of 20,000 m². The entire complex is surrounded by a massive parking lot for about 9,000 cars. The Pentagon is connected to Washington by a network of highways, the metro, and buses; it is practically inaccessible on foot.

Fifteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, the day of the 60th anniversary of the start of construction, the Pentagon became one of the targets of terrorist attacks by hijacked airplanes, during which the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York were destroyed. At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed at that time - 64 on board the plane (including five hijackers) and 125 inside the building. The repair of the damaged building cost 740 million dollars.